A Judeo-French medical text: - PowerPoint Presentation

1. A Judeo-French medical text: Fevres (Staatsbibliothek Berlin,or. oct. 512)OSRJL – JUDEO-FRENCHSESSION 8

2. Fevres: An exceptional text(?)the only extant entire, non-poetical text in Judeo-Frenchits subject is not a religious one, but one of the secular sciences that were diffused in Europe particularly by the Arabic scholars from Al-Andalus (Moorish kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492)classical assumption: the Jewish scholars in Tsarfat usually did not study the Arabic sciences like astronomy, mathematics, and medicineBUT: medicine is an exception to the rule! medical texts from Medieval France written in Hebrew that bear O. Fr. medical vocabulary, e. g. the theoretical medical essays on humoral medicine extant in Oxford, MS Opp. 687 (13th c.) and its later copy in MS Opp. 688 (1468/69, prob. from Italy), written by Solomon ben Abin/Abun in the 12th c.

3. Fevres: An exceptional text(?)copies from Hebrew adaptations of an Anglo-Norman translation of a Latin Lapidarius (tractate on the properties of stones) by Marbode, bishop of Rennes (c. 1040–1123), extant in Oxford, MS Can. or. 70 and MS Heb. d. 11the text describes the appearance and medical effects of the stones and how they should be carried as an amulet or powdered and ingestedin MS Can. or. 70, out of 84 names of stones, 63 are in Old French and 21 in Latin or Hebrew (cf. ed. by Gerrit Bos and Julia Zwink, 2010 and Gad Freudenthal and Jean-Marc Mandosio, 2014)not ‘scientific’ in the rationalist sense of the term and linked to the domain of religious exegesis via the discussion of the precious stones in the High Priest’s Breastplate in Exodus 39, 8–14 (cf. Leipzig Glossary and Machzor Vitry)

4. Jewish medicine in the European Middle Agesfrom the 9th c. on: schools of medicine or centres for medical education in Europefirst and most famous: the School of Salerno (Schola Medica Salernitana), whose medical programme was based on the Greek-Latin medical tradition (Hippokrates, Galen, Dioscorides) and supplemented by elements from Arabic medicine (al-Razi, Ibn Sina)important in Southern France: the School of Montpellier, founded in the last quarter of the 12th c.Jewish physicians had a high reputation from the early Middle Ages on, but in the late Middle Ages Jews were often barred from attending medical schools or universitiesJews had to develop a way of transferring medical knowledge within their culture, and since they had no own medical schools, they were educated mostly in a private context

5. Jewish medicine in the European Middle Agesbut: they had no or only limited access to the (Latin) medical literature (and the knowledge certain contents of medical literature was necessary to get the license to practice (licentia practicandi) as a physician) and so they had to translate Latin works into Hebrew or into the vernacular languageas in Hebrew (at least as it was spoken in Europe) at that time there was no technical terminology for medicine, the Hebrew translations often contain medical terms from other languages, especially from Arabic, Latin, and the vernacular language of Southern France, Old Occitan

6. The manuscript (MS Berlin, or. oct. 512)bound in a codex, whose sheets are bound together in 45 gatherings/quires (for the most part quaternions, i.e. gatherings of four folded sheets)385 folios (‘pages’)two script types: square script (headlines of the chapters and subchapters) in two versions and Ashkenazic cursive script (main text), which can be dated to the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th c. the script style is homogeneous and the script is entirely vocalised according to the Tiberian systemthe linguistic features suggest a provenance from the Eastern areas of Tsarfat (Champagne, Burguny, Lorraine)three partial editions (Katzenellenbogen 1933, Kiwitt 2001, Zwink 2017) and one glossary (Saye 1931)

7. The manuscript (MS Berlin, or. oct. 512)unknown author, but from the author’s own words we know that he was a medical practitioner, probably a beginner:“Je ne suz mie acotumé de faire totes ces medicines, mais je vois la voie générale de li faire seigner.” (fol. 189v, ed. Katzenellenbogen 1933: 10)‘I am not used to do all this medicine, but I know the general way of blood-letting.’he probably studied in Italy, namely in Forlì (southwest of Ravenna):“[…] si me l’aprint […]re o je etoie as ecoles de […]t metre Hillel de Forlin.” (fol. 220v., ed. Kiwitt 2001: 83ff.)“Hillel de Forlin”: Hillel ben Samuel, who first lived in Capua, then in Ferrara and in around 1280 founded the medical school of Forlì

8. Sources and Vorlagenthe concepts of disease and health that Fevres is based on are those of the hippocratic-galenic doctrine as it appears in the medical tradition of the School of Salernothe author often mentions his sources explicitlymost often: Kitāb al-ḥummayāt (‘Book of Fevers’) by Isaac Israeli from the first half of the 10th c., mainly based on the works by Galen and Hippokrates our author did not consult the Arabic original by Isaac Israeli, but at least one of the two Hebrew translations that existed at the time and bear the title Sefer ha-qadaḥot (‘Book of Fevers’):“Ore metrai la cure de Isac si com son livre m’aprent […] Si com j’ai o livre de sen en ebri trové […]” (f. 238v25-239r4, ed. Katzenellenbogen 1933, 6, bold: S.H.)

9. Sources and Vorlagenthe older Hebrew translation: made by “Do’eg ha-Edomi”, an anonymous Jew living in Southern France (Languedoc), who between 1197 and 1199 translated numerous medical works from Latin into Hebrew: among these is the translation of the Liber Febrium, the Latin translation of the Kitāb al-ḥummayāt made by Constantinus Africanus (11th c.); the translation by Do’eg is very faithful to the Liber Febrium and extant in a single manuscript from the 14th or 15th c. (MS ebr. 363 of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)the second Hebrew translation stems from the 13th c. and was made directly from the Arabic original; it appears in two versions, of which one is very faithful to the Arabic original and extant in MS Paris, BN héb. 1127

10. Sources and Vorlagenthe comparison of selected passages of Fevres with the Liber Febrium as extant in two mss. and a printing (Lyons 1515) and the Sefer ha-qadaḥot as extant in ms. Vat. ebr. 363 and ms. Paris hébr. 1127 by Zwink (2017) shows thatthe Hebrew translation extant in ms. Paris hébr. 1127 can be excluded as a Vorlage for FevresFevres shows similarities and divergences both to the Liber Febrium and to the Sefer ha-qadaḥot in the version of ms. Vat. ebr. 363, but in a quantitative view the similarities to the Sefer ha-qadaḥot are stronger the similarities to the Latin version and the existence of a high number of Latin loanwords (and sometimes whole sentences!) however makes Zwink assume that Fevres is not directly based on the Hebrew version of ms. Vat., but that the Vorlage was another Hebrew version that is not extant

11. Stemma (Zwink 2017, 101)

12. Loanwords for medical terms (Examples)a) Loanwords without phonetical adaptation (Germ. ‘Fremdwörter’)Latin (cf. Zwink 2017: 174)in nominative case:ʼeYMPLaŠṬRWoM = Lat. emplastrum ‘plaster’QaNFWoRaʼ = M. Lat. canfora ‘camphor’ (resin of the camphor tree)BeRBeYRiYŠ = M. Lat. berberis ‘barberry’in genitive case (cf. the frequent formula in recipes: “Take XXX grams/ounces… OF X”.)QWoQWoMRiYŠ = M. Lat. cocomeris, gen. of cocomis ‘cucumber’QWoQWoRBiYṬeY = M. Lat. cocorbite, gen. of cocorbita ‘gourd’SaNDaLiY = M. Lat. sandali, gen. of sandalus ‘sandalwood’

13. Loanwords for medical terms (Examples)Old Occitan (cf. Zwink 2017: 555f.)BLeYDaʼ = bleda ‘beet’ʼaŠiYṬWẒ = acitos ‘sour’Middle High German (cf. Zwink 2017: 556f.)ʼaDEYYQ = Attich ‘danewort’QLeY BlaʼṬ = Kleeblatt ‘clover’

14. Loanwords for medical terms (Examples)b) Latin loanwords with phonetical adaptation to O. Fr. (Germ. ‘Lehnwörter’)LeYSṬWoMaʼKə = l’estomaq(e) (Lat. stomachus) ‘stomach’(note: the Latinism is also reflected by the use of samekh for [s] and kaf for [k])DiYʼeŠṬiYʼWoN = digestion (Lat. digestio, -nis) ‘digestion’ʼWoPiYLaʼẒiYʼWoN = opilacion (Lat. oppilatio, -nis) ‘constipation’

15. Loanwords for medical terms (Examples)c) Bilingual/hybrid expressionscombinations of O. Fr. and Lat. word forms to create technical terms:Lat. as the determinatum – O. Fr. as the determinans:ʼQWoNŠWoLiYDa LaʼGRaʼNDəʼ = consolida la grande ‘comfrey’ʼQWoNŠWoLiYDa […] LaʼPeYṬiYṬəʼ = consolida la petite ‘daisy’O. Fr. as the determinatum – Lat. as the determinans:VeYRṬWu ʼaPeYṬaʼṬiYVaʼ = vertu apetativa ‘attracting force’VeYRṬWu DiYʼeŠṬiYVaʼ = vertu digestiva ‘digesting force’